Navy Legend to See World--as a Civilian : Retirement: Charles Gallagher played a key role in Antarctica operation. He ends a 30-year career amid high-ranking company.

The year was 1965, Lyndon Johnson was president and well on his way to realizing his vision of a “Great Society.” Congress had established Medicare, passed the Voting Rights Act, and civil rights activists made their famous march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

And 18-year-old Charles William Gallagher decided to join the Navy, more a game of romantic one-upmanship than a conscious career move.

“I was upset at this girl,” said Gallagher, 48, moments before his retirement ceremony Friday. “It was one of those, ‘I’ll show her. I’ll join the Navy.’ And I never looked back. I just loved it.”

“Although during my first night of boot camp, I was lying there, questioning, ‘What have I done?”’ the Los Angeles native said, laughing. “But I’d trade places with any junior person out there because I’d get to do it all over again.”

On Friday, 30 years later and on the cusp of retirement, Master Chief Fire Controlman Gallagher’s distinguished and unflagging service to the Navy was recognized in a traditional ceremony at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme.

Gallagher, who is an imposing 6 foot 5 inches tall and remarkably fit, is indeed a legend among the military personnel at the base, where he is command master chief of the U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica.

NSFA, known also as “Operation Deep Freeze,” assists the National Science Foundation to provide everything from communications services to medical care for those working on the icy continent.

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Gallagher has spent two-thirds of his career at sea, serving on the aircraft carrier Constellation, and three destroyers, the Berkeley, Charles F. Adams and Hoel. He has taught sailors tactics for using weapons systems and three-dimensional air search radar, and served as command master chief--the senior enlisted man--four times.

Gallagher said he has visited nearly one country for every year he has served in the Navy, including every continent but Australia. But of all he has seen, it is the barren and austere beauty of Antarctica that he speaks of with reverence, respect and awe.

“It’s a very sobering experience when you step out into the continent at a remote field camp, and to think that no more than perhaps a hundred people have ever set foot there,” he said.

Friday, Gallagher’s dress blues hid the tattoos that cover his arms and legs. A clutch of medals and ribbons weighed heavily on the left breast of his uniform. His head shaved, Gallagher speaks with confidence and purpose.

For an indication of the respect and admiration Gallagher has earned throughout his career one needed only to glance at the guest list: Rear Adm. Luther F. Schriefer , who flew from Washington for the ceremony; his former commanding officer, retired Capt. (Woo) Ferrell; a cadre of about 60 Navy personnel and members of NSFA who stood board-straight at attention during the ceremony, and many longtime friends.

And of course, his family--daughters Monica, Shawn and Erin, and his sister Bonnie--was there to help mark, not retirement necessarily, but his transition to a new life as a civilian. Gallagher will return to Antarctica, where he has already served four eight-month tours of duty, as a civilian manager for the research stations’ housing facilities.

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“I’m really happy for him and proud of him,” said Bonnie Gallagher of Palm Springs, who drove up for the ceremony. “But he’ll miss it.”

“This is the man who’s got 14 pairs of khakis,” said Monica Gallagher who shares her father’s love for the sea and has been in the U.S. Coast Guard for eight months.

“The Navy likes to call it retirement, but I’m not ready,” Gallagher said before the ceremony Friday. “I did a real good job about covering it up until about last night . . . I’m going to do my damnedest not to cry.”

Of his many accomplishments and awards, Gallagher noted one in particular that stands out: his selection in 1992 as one of 10 finalists for master chief petty officer of the Navy, the top enlisted man in the entire fleet.

In comments at the ceremony--held in a grassy, tree-shaded corner of the base--Schriefer and Capt. Jack Rector, Gallagher’s commanding officer at NSFA, lauded Gallagher’s professionalism, dedication, creativity and judgment.

“We are here today to celebrate a monument of a man, both literally and figuratively,” Schriefer said as he addressed the audience. “He has effected change in thousands of young men and women in our Navy.” Rector called Gallagher his “most trusted adviser.”

Gallagher said he was acutely aware of the importance of the tradition and continuity within the Navy. “There’s really a passing on of traditions,” he said before the ceremony. “I think you have to hold on to the past. . . . It may seem archaic, but there’s a reason.”

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In his comments before the audience gathered in his honor, Gallagher spoke of what was perhaps the most fulfilling to him. “Seeing people grow is really what makes you feel good,” he said, noting the grand satisfaction of seeing young sailors rise through the ranks.

Before the retirement cake was cut and he uncapped a celebratory New Zealand beer, he took part in a traditional ceremony of leave-taking, dating back to the 1500s and used in many countries’ navies, known as “piping over the side.”

The sailor chooses those who will stand on either side of him as he takes his last brief walk from ship to shore. Gallagher had four side boys, as they are known, one of whom was his daughter.

And before he took that last symbolic walk--from ship to shore, from military life to a new beginning as a civilian--he told those gathered before him, in a steady and somber voice, “Thank you for coming to my transition.”